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Beyond bacon and eggs, lovers of the cured meat have long crumbled bits of it over salad or into quiche. But lately innovators are pairing the flexible little strips with the unexpected: baking it into cookies, covering it with chocolate and using it to garnish manly cupcakes, perfect for Super Bowl fare.

There’s even Bacon Today, a blog which extols the joy of “sweet, sweet bacon.”

Then there are products created using bacon as their base.

Enter Skillet Bacon Spread, for example, created by chef Josh Henderson. It’s made by rendering good-quality bacon, adding spices, balsamic vinegar, onions and brown sugar, and simmering it for several hours. It’s then puréed, and the result is a thick condiment with a flavour that’s sweet and savoury.

Henderson, 39, proprietor of Skillet Street Food in Seattle, developed the bacon spread several years ago as a topping for his specialty burgers, which consist of grass-fed beef, arugula and cambozola. He likes to think of himself as a “pioneer” in the development of the condiment, ahead of the bacon trend that seems to have swept through the food world.

“We like to put it on our burger, serve it on crostini, perhaps on a grilled cheese, as a substitute for bacon on a BLT, or maybe the base for a vinaigrette,” as well as on a cheese platter with pickled vegetables and crackers, Henderson said.

From his vintage Airstream trailer he cooks up sockeye salmon chowder, duck confit and a pie of the week using fresh seasonal ingredients. But the emphasis is on the classics, burgers and poutine.

“People started tasting (bacon jam) on their burger and then just kept wanting to order it. It’s kind of the classic story of people wanting to buy it separate from the truck and it really kind of ... ended up saving the business because we were pretty close to folding a couple of years ago.”

He said they received a big rush of orders when domestic maven Martha Stewart and Real Simple magazine put it in their holiday gift guide in 2009. The spike in sales prompted him to hire someone to make it for them and package it for sale the following year.

Last fall, Loblaw launched citrusy-sweet Bacon Marmalade in its President’s Choice black label line, which features products normally found in specialty gourmet stores. The company recommends spreading this marmalade on toast, grilled meat, sandwich bread or crackers and cheese.

Henderson jokingly calls his creation “trailer park rillettes.” The Food Dictionary defines rillettes as pieces of meat, usually pork but also rabbit, goose, poultry or fish, that are slowly cooked in seasoned fat and then pounded or pulverized (along with some of the fat) into a paste. This mixture is packed in small pots and covered with a thin layer of fat. The smooth pâté is served cold, usually as an appetizer spread on toast or bread.

Henderson’s Skillet Bacon Spread is available in specialty stores in four provinces — Nova Scotia, Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario — or it can be ordered online. Visit skilletstreetfood.com for information. If you want to try your hand at making your own version, there are numerous recipes on the Internet.